mjt328

The Bills cap situation is nowhere near the catastrophe people want to make it. In the past, you had teams like the Saints (buying up every top free agent on the market) or the Rams (trading away top picks for star players). With the exception of the Von Miller move two years ago... literally one player contract, Brandon Beane has been consistent with his plan of building through the draft and getting low-priced free agents to fill-out the depth. Annual contract restructures are done by literally every team, including the 3x World Champion Kansas City Chiefs we have been desperately trying to catch. They only become an issue when the player becomes old/ineffective and you can no longer part ways. Restructuring Josh Allen every year holds zero risk. Because when he becomes old and ineffective, the team falls apart and needs a rebuild anyway. We will continue using this method every year to clear $20-30 million, and it will be OK. Trust me. They aren't doing this with every contract on the team. Only a handful each year who strategically make sense. The only current contracts the Bills have which are really a burden are with Miller (as already mentioned), and possibly Stefon Diggs. Both have outs in 2024. So if we can get by one more year "kicking the can down the road" - we can clear a lot of cap space by next offseason. The idea that our cap problems will continue to compound infinitely simply isn't true. Everyone freaked out last year, because the Bills were leaving huge holes at Middle Linebacker and Right Tackle. Then Terrell Bernard and Spencer Brown developed and stepped up. Everything was OK. So as long as Beane continues to draft well, we can continue rolling. We enter this offseason with questions at WR2, DE, DT and FS. We should be able to address at least two of those spots with minimal cap space, and the others with draft picks.

The best way to avoid salary cap hell is by drafting well. The Saints were headed into a very bad financial situation several years back. But then the 2017 draft class netted them 5 very good starters (Lattimore, Ramczyk, Williams, Kamara and Hendrickson). That allowed them to extend their window significantly. Brandon Beane has been a solid/good drafter during his tenure here, regardless of what some fans say. He consistently gets 2-3 starting caliber players every single year, allowing the team to replace outgoing veterans (such as Tremaine Edmunds with Terrell Bernard) and get little to no drop-off. I'm confident the same thing will happen this season. What the Bills could REALLY use is a homerun draft. Something closer to what 2017-2018 netted us. Instead of getting 2-3 solid guys, if we could end up with 4-5. Instead of just being solid starters, maybe we could get an All-Pro or two in the mix. It would also be nice for rookies to make a more immediate impact. It seems like the majority of Beane's picks are slow-burners. They do little to nothing as rookies and then take 3-4 years to really get going. The most recent examples are Ed Oliver and AJ Epenesa.

I've been watching this team since the late 1980s. Now my kids are the same age I was during the Super Bowl years. My grandfather passed away without seeing the Bills win the Super Bowl. Now my father is over 70. Yeah, it's nice to have a player like Josh Allen under center. But I've experienced having great players before. Even the drought teams had some fantastic individual talents that I enjoyed watching like LeSean McCoy, Kyle Williams, etc. What I've never experienced is seeing my team a top the football world... not even just ONE time. When I sit back and consider that Brady and Mahomes have enough rings to fill up two hands, while my own family is on the 4th generation of fandom and still has nothing to show for it. That's why my full focus is on the Lombardi.

Umm. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl. You can downplay them all you want, but the Ravens and 49ers failed to stop them too. Betting lines should not be taken as gospel, or an accurate representation of anything on the football field. The goal of Vegas is to get away with as much of the public's money as possible. Period.

It wasn't so much about the sheer number of players the Bills were missing across the lineup. It was the number of players they were missing at one position, and how that matched up against Kansas City. Everyone knows the Chiefs offense runs primarily through Travis Kelce. In our Defensive system, the Tight Ends are usually covered by Linebackers. The Bills were down both of their starting LBs in Matt Milano and Terrell Bernard. Their top backup Tyrell Dodson was gutting it through a shoulder injury, and then hurt his ankle during the game. They were also down their #5 backer in Baylon Spector. This left rookie Dorian Williams and AJ Klein (who was signed off the street two weeks earlier, and also got injured during the game) to handle probably the best TE in football.

Good News: The Bills championship window will remain open as long as Josh Allen can play at an elite level, and Brandon Beane can put a good roster around him. I have very few doubts this team will be among the top contenders again next season, if they can stay healthy at the key spots. The worries about this year's salary cap are totally overblown. I actually think the Bills are in better financial shape than even last offseason. There are some common-sense restructures (Allen, Rasul Douglas, Taron Johnson) and cuts that will clear space. I'm sad to say goodbye to Tre White, but we will be fine without him. Same with Jordan Poyer/Micah Hyde, who really showed their age this season. If we can bring back DaQuan Jones and either Leonard Floyd/AJ Epenesa, the D-Line will be fine. The big need is WR and this draft is loaded in that area. After that, we likely need a pair of safeties. But good ones can be found on Day 2 of the draft, and in the bargain-bin of free agency. No team is better at coaching up the secondary. The rest of the draft will be for getting younger and looking towards the future. Every other position is in good shape. No need for a reset/reboot. Bad news: Allen probably isn't an elite QB when he isn't using his legs. The Bills tried this year to take that away from his game, almost certainly in an attempt to extend his future career. The offense was terribly inconsistent, and it almost cost us the playoffs. When he started running again, the team went on a win-streak and claimed the division. When will age catch-up with our quarterback is anyone's guess. But that is the main reason I feel a sense of urgency. Not because of free agency or the salary cap.

Not sure I agree here. Allen had his WR open in the endzone with a 3 point deficit, and he should have ignored him in favor of milking the clock? That seems like a really conservative mindset, and in some ways could be considered "playing for the tie." It's hard to score in the Redzone, so I think you take the shot when it presents itself. I think he did the correct thing 100%. I can guarantee that if Mahomes had a WR open in the endzone in the Super Bowl, he would have taken the shot too. The time ran down because the 49ers were keeping everything in front of them, and they were unable to do anything else. Not because he's superior in situational awareness. And at the end of the day, he was unable to give his team the lead in regulation. That also left the 49ers with a chance to win the game. Again... this is why I get frustrated with how the media analyzes the legacy of football players and teams. There are SO MANY factors that go into every win/loss. There are SO MANY players who have a role. It truly is a game of inches, and unlike other sports where you have a best of 7 game series, the NFL is one and done. The difference between hoisting the Lombardi trophy and going home a loser... can literally come down to the ball bouncing off the foot of a special teams player that nobody has ever heard of. People feel the need to prop up Mahomes over every other QB because of his Super Bowl rings. So they come up with all these "reasons" that he's vastly superior to Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, etc., etc. They used to do the same thing when comparing Tom Brady to Peyton Manning. Or Joe Montana to Dan Marino. In truth, there are lots of reasons why the Chiefs have 3 recent titles and the Bills have none... and virtually none of them have to do with Allen being an inferior QB to Mahomes.

You are buying into the media narrative. There are 22 starters on every team and almost 50 players on the roster competing every single week. But they want to make everything about the Quarterback position, and some magical ability to "will their team to victory" in the big game. Patrick Mahomes (as usual) is getting all the credit for Sunday's game. But the truth is, he did almost nothing until the final quarter. His defense played incredible all day and kept the game within reach. The 49ers had a terrible muffed punt, which led to an easy one-play touchdown. That was followed up a missed extra point, which allowed the Chiefs to tie the game and send it to overtime. Yes, he took advantage when SF left the door open. But those two special teams plays don't happen, and Mahomes almost certainly comes out on the losing end. Josh Allen has played GREAT in his postseason career. 272 yards per game. 64.6 completion percentage. 100 passer rating. 21 touchdowns and only 4 turnovers. The media wants to turn him into a playoff choker (because everything must be about the QB), but the reality is that he's anything but. It's a ridiculously LAZY take. But football is complicated and it's easier for these clowns to argue on tv about Tom Brady vs. Joe Montana vs. Mahomes, as opposed to doing a deep-dive into strategy, play-calling, matchups, etc. etc. The real question is why Stefon Diggs never shows up in the playoffs? Why does the pass rush (and defense as a whole) always disappear in the big playoff games?

I keep saying this... but there isn't a magic bullet that will suddenly break the Bills through the playoff wall. In the NFL, there just isn't a huge gap between the top and bottom teams. Each year, there are a handful of top contenders who are on roughly the same level. Once we reach the Divisional/Championship Rounds, those teams start playing each other and knocking each other out. Sometimes it comes down to which team is healthiest. Sometimes one team is hot and the other team is in a slump. Sometimes the game is close and comes down to a couple lucky bounces. Back in 2020, the Bills were really an inexperienced fringe Super Bowl contender and the Chiefs were the class of the NFL. They would have needed everything to work their way to pull-off the upset in the Championship Game, but it just didn't happen. Since that point (three years in a row now), we've lost key defensive players that have hurt us badly against elite QBs in the playoffs. 2021 was Tre White on Thanksgiving. 2022 was Micah Hyde early and Von Miller on Thanksgiving. This year was Matt Milano early, and then Terrell Bernard, Christian Benford and a huge chunk of the secondary at the end. The Bills have been the NFL's second-best regular season team over the last four years (only topped by the Chiefs). In that same time period, we have seen the Buccaneers and Rams win a Super Bowl. We have seen the Bengals, Eagles and 49ers make the Super Bowl. Those are the only six teams in the league who can argue at having more success than us. I'm as frustrated as anybody. Hopefully the Bills can continue to put themselves in position, and (at least) one of these years the mathematical odds will work in our favor.

But he's really not the "best player in the league by miles." That's the issue. Statistically speaking, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen are almost identical over the last 4 seasons. Yards, Touchdowns, Etc. Even their head-to-head record is 4-3, with most of those games coming down to the final minutes and finishing less than one-score apart. The only obvious separation between Mahomes/Allen is in postseason success. The Bills win in the regular season. The Chiefs win in the playoffs and end up in the Super Bowl. Of course the media is going to turn all of that upon the Quarterback (or possibly Head Coach depending on which narrative they are pushing at the time). But that's a lazy take. In the 13 seconds game, Allen put the winning score on the board and then watched from the bench while the rest of the team choked it away. A few weeks ago, he fired the go-ahead TD into the Endzone...only to have his Left Tackle get knocked into him during the release. Two plays later, his kicker missed the chance to at least tie. Mahomes is great. And he deserves plenty of praise. But it's the same argument we saw in the past with Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning. One gets propped up higher simply because of team success.

This is just a silly take. He traded for Stefon Diggs, who in 4 seasons has put together the 4 best receiving seasons in Bills history. In free agency, he landed a premium slot receiver in Cole Beasley. He also got very good value for John Brown, who put up 1,000 yards in his first season here. So far, he hasn't drafted a WR before the 4th Round. Yet we got starting-level production from Gabe Davis and Khalil Shakir had a nice breakout season this year. If you want to argue that Brandon Beane hasn't used enough resources on the WR room, I guess that's fair. But we also need to remember that we have 53 roster spots and 22 starting roles, with only so many draft picks and limited cap space. You can't address everything every single year. Beane has admitted he wanted a WR in last year's draft, but he didn't want to trade up and they were all gone. So he took the best receiving threat remaining, which was Dalton Kincaid. Looking at the upcoming draft, he probably made the correct decision. Kincaid is developing into an elite Tight End, and this year's draft is absolutely loaded with talent. We will get at least one, if not multiple WR prospects.

Yes. The Bills window will remain open as long as Josh Allen is playing at this level. The only question is... how long can he continue playing at this level? We aren't talking about a pocket passer who drops to the ground whenever a hit is coming. That's a major reason Tom Brady was able to continue playing strong well into his 40s. No, we are talking about a QB that plays like a fullback half the time, and has no problem stiff-arming Defensive Linemen and running over Linebackers. That physical style is bound to catch-up at some point. Early this year, we saw what happens when Allen stops running, and it's not good. The Bills aren't a hugely explosive offense. But the reason they are consistently Top 5 in the NFL is because of their high 3rd-Down conversion rate and effectiveness in the Red Zone. They get that edge from Allen's legs. Take it away, and they become inconsistent. My belief is that Allen is more Brett Favre/Ben Roethlisberger than he is Cam Newton. So when his mobility eventually breaks down later in his career, he will still be a very good passer in the NFL. But will he still be great? That's the concern. Big Ben had big stats and kept making the Pro Bowl throughout his career. But he won his last Super Bowl at 26 years old.

I will never understand how people can live in this world, and not be the slightest bit skeptical about things around them. All the greed, theft, cheating, stealing that goes on. But if you aren't convinced that everything coming from a multi-billion dollar industry is 100% legit, then you are a crazy tinfoil hat conspiracy lunatic... The NFL itself makes jokes about "the script" in their marketing. But very few people are claiming the NFL is scripted (like WWE Wrestling for example). Maybe a few on social media trying to gain clicks and attention. That is a misdirection and misrepresentation of the argument. The fear that MOST people have is that games/situations could sometimes be manipulated into favorable situations for the league. And that unfortunately is very plausible. Many players themselves believe the NFL helps push for certain outcomes using the refs. The most recent example is DeSean Jackson, who just stated a few days ago that the NFL was trying to get the Chiefs into the Super Bowl because of Taylor Swift. Thanks to Swift, the NFL has free marketing to a MASSIVE demographic that it had virtually zero representation in before late 2023. Anyone who thinks that doesn't have value to a company is kidding themselves. Even if 95% of young girls drop the NFL when Kelce retires or that relationship ends, the league still picked up a HUGE number of new viewers. Some years back, it was revealed that Buffalo was trying to sign Michael Vick (after his stint in prison), and Roger Goodell got involved to help push him towards a more stable team (which ended up being Philadelphia). Now what purpose could the league possibly have in doing such a thing? Seems kind-of unfair to the Bills. The NFL was already making billions. But they realized that Vick was a PR nightmare waiting to happen, and they didn't want him being handled by a team with a messy front office. And even if the NFL itself isn't involved in manipulating games, you still have to worry about refs being paid off (see the NBA), coaches/players doing the same (how many have been caught betting on the side already), and the billions upon billions that come from gambling/fantasy football.

If Marv Levy could lead a team to 4 straight Super Bowl appearances (with one loss coming down to a missed field goal), then it's ridiculous to say he was incapable of leading the Bills to a Super Bowl win. His presence as this team's Head Coach had nothing to do with Scott Norwood kicking wide right. If that one ball goes through the uprights, he's forever logged in NFL history as a Super Bowl winner. Instead, the narrative is that he possessed some kind of internal flaw that made him unable to get it done. In reality, he was a very good HC that suffered bad luck. The unfortunate truth of this sport is that coaches/players can have hugely successful careers that span 10-20 years... but their story and their final legacy will often come down to a single game, and sometimes a single decision or single play. If Drew Bledsoe never gets injured, Tom Brady never gets a shot in the first place. If the Tuck Rule play is called a fumble, the Pats lose that game on a Brady turnover and it's also likely that Bledsoe regains his starting job the next season. Jim Kelly and John Elway were in the same draft together. Kelly played until he was 36 and retired, forever known as a QB who couldn't get a ring. At 36 years old, Elway was 0-3 in the big game and still had zero rings. Two years later, he was a back-to-back champion and his entire legacy had changed.

13 Seconds was a heartbreaking loss which will go down with the worst in Buffalo Bills history. But I spent that offseason convincing myself we were on the verge of a championship, and there was no way a talent like Josh Allen could be denied from eventually getting a ring. Over the last two years, I've come back down to Earth. Losses hurt less, because I really don't expect anything from this franchise anymore. Seasons come. Seasons go. And every February is the same, with someone else hoisting the Lombardi trophy. My full expectation is that Allen will someday become the next Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Warren Moon. Clearly an all-time great at the QB position, but unable to land a championship. Meanwhile, Patrick Mahomes will push to surpass Tom Brady in Super Bowls won.

Following the 2021 AFC Divisional loss, the general consensus amongst most Bills fans was that: - The big thing missing was "a closer" at the pass rush position - Gabe Davis was going to be a superstar #2 WR Until the ACL injury on Thanksgiving, Miller was playing great for us. And at that time, most felt that Brandon Beane had done a great job in landing him. Sure there were some who always hated the contract. But it wasn't until the injury that Bills fans started raising questions. And it wasn't until Miller returned Week 5 and was totally ineffective... then suddenly everyone started acting like signing him was an obvious mistake. In regards to Davis, it wasn't until about 4-5 games into the 2022 season when fans started questioning him as the #2. If the Bills had traded for A.J. Brown or Davante Adams after a 4 touchdown postseason game, fans would have thrown an absolute fit. And I highly doubt that a better WR opposite Stefon Diggs would have made any difference in the Bengals playoff game.

There isn't a magic bullet that suddenly puts the Bills into the Super Bowl. Yes, the roster can always be upgraded. There are always going to be coaching mistakes we can look back on. But even if replace Sean McDermott with your favorite coaching prospect and add multiple Pro-Bowl talents in the draft, this team will still be faced with beating a trio of the Chiefs, Ravens, Bengals, 49ers, Eagles, Lions or whoever the league's best are that season. What people don't realize is that every single season there are around 4-5 legitimate Super Bowl contenders. Once you hit the Divisional/Championship rounds, those teams start knocking each other off. To be the team on top, you need to be healthy. You need to be playing your best ball at the end of the season. And yes, you need a little bit of luck on your side. For every Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Joe Montana who make it look easy, there are TONS of elite QBs and great teams who STRUGGLE to break through in the postseason. Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Warren Moon never won rings. John Elway took until the final two seasons of his career. Steve Young, Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees only scraped out one victory. Peyton Manning took years before finally busting through. The Bills have put themselves in that contender conversation now 4 years in a row. For different reasons, they just haven't been able to get over the hump. - In 2020, they were on the back-end of the conversation and needed the Chiefs to have an off-game to upset them. They didn't. - In 2021, they lost Tre White in the final stretch. Everything else seemed to be on track, but it literally came down to a coin flip and they lost. - In 2022, they had a ton of injuries and the Damar Hamlin thing. They weren't playing their best at the end of the season. - In 2023, injuries once again hit in the final few games of the season.

But he didn't catch it. And that was a theme over the final 2 months of the season. Not getting open, frequent drops and inability to make contested plays. It's not like Diggs hasn't been facing extra attention his ENTIRE career in Buffalo. That's not an excuse. The Bills haven't had an elite #2 to draw coverage away since Cole Beasley was first cut. Not an excuse either. And every single WR in the league will have missed throws/plays on film that could have changed their stat line. Also not an excuse. Bottom line is, the production for Diggs fell off a cliff in the back-half of the season. Most quarterbacks aren't Tom Brady. And most wide receivers aren't Jerry Rice. Age is a real thing for professional athletes, and it has nothing to do with talent or competitive drive. Playing to 35-40 years old at a high level is extremely rare. Look at the shelf life for most top WRs in the NFL, and you will see quite a large number start declining shortly after their 30th birthday. The most recent that comes to mind is Julio Jones. And once "Father Time" comes calling, it's over. Hopefully Diggs was dealing with an undisclosed injury that really slowed him down. Because otherwise, the harsh reality is that he has probably hit the age wall.

Yesterday's game is the perfect example why head coaching changes are overrated. Yes, the decisions that coaches make are HUGELY important to the outcome of games. And in retrospect, if Dan Campbell decides to kick those field goals instead of going for it on 4th Down, the Lions almost certainly win the game and go to the Super Bowl. Running the ball at the goal line also cost them a timeout, which would have allowed the defense one more crack at getting the ball. But at the same time, you absolutely cannot blame Campbell for the outcome of those plays. On both 4th Downs, receivers were open and dropped the ball. That's execution by the players. Not the coach's fault. The running play was definitely more risky than a pass, but he was trying to catch the defense off-guard and it simply didn't work. Switch Campbell out for Bill Belichick/Don Shula/Vince Lombardi, and maybe the outcome of this game is different. But maybe some other games along the way don't workout for the Lions, because those coaches were less aggressive. Bottom line... what most coaches get criticized/praised for during their careers falls back 95% on the players. Whether to punt, go for it, kick the field goal. When to run trick plays. With the benefit of hindsight (and knowing whether it worked or not), decisions can look brilliant or stupid. In my opinion, offensive/defensive coordinators are more important... because they are matching scheme to talent.

Not sure they have the flexibility to make any Practice Squad moves at CB either way. Only two players can get called up in a single week. With Gabe Davis already out and Stefon Diggs injured, they will almost certainly use one of those spots on a wide receiver. Probably Andy Isabella. Otherwise we go into the game pretty short-handed at WR. The other call-up will either be a Linebacker (AJ Klein) or a punter (Matt Hauck). If for some reason they don't call up Klein, that would be a huge indicator that Terrell Bernard plays. If they need both spots, then don't be surprised if they put Sam Martin on IR. Unfortunately, if Taron Johnson doesn't play...we are probably looking at them shuffling around the entire back-end. Some combination of Cam Lewis, Siran Neal and Damar Hamlin rotating around the safety/slot CB roles. And then Jordan Poyer moving up to coverage linebacker at times.

Fair or not, the way history views this iteration of the Buffalo Bills may ultimately depend on this game (and if we can win the Super Bowl). Was the Brandon Beane/Sean McDermott legacy successful or a disappointment? Was Josh Allen among the greatest QBs ever? I agree with those who say it's just one game. But it's games like this that write the story. Despite being a Hall of Fame QB, Jim Kelly's legacy will always have 4 Super Bowl losses hanging over his head. John Elway was viewed in the same light until two years before retiring, when he finally broke through and won the big one. It took one championship for Steve Young to emerge from Joe Montana's shadow. Peyton Manning was considered a postseason choker, unable to get past Tom Brady. Then the Colts knocked off the Patriots, took the Lombardi and he never had that label again. The truth is that Beane's roster has now beaten the Kansas City Chiefs three times in their last four matchups, with the only loss coming in the 13 seconds debacle. But if they lose Sunday, history will say the Buffalo Bills and Josh Allen just couldn't break through the hurdle of defeating Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs. And everything the front office has done will be questioned.

I feel way better than last year. The Bengals were always a terrible matchup for us (still are), and going into that game the Bills overall had been playing horribly for about 2 months. Everybody in the media kept talking about us like the Damar Hamlin thing was going to be destiny for us, but I saw a team with nothing left in the tank. Going the wrong way at the wrong time. Although I'm still 50/50 on us winning Sunday, this team does seem to be coming together at the right time. It's still not quite perfect. But I like how the defense has been performing since the Eagles game. And the offense took a nice step against the Steelers, avoiding the normal turnovers and stupid mistakes. That weird blocked kick was the only reason we didn't totally blow them out. The Chiefs are also very vulnerable (although you should never count out a player like Patrick Mahomes).

NFL history is covered with all-time greats who struggled for years before finally breaking through: - Steve Young's 49ers couldn't get past the Cowboys - Brett Favre's Packers couldn't get past the Cowboys - Peyton Manning's Colts couldn't get past the Patriots This game is the next step for Josh Allen if he wants to be mentioned with those names. Keep struggling to get past the Chiefs, and he becomes the next Phillip Rivers.

Feel about the same as I did in 2021 when we faced them in Arrowhead. These two teams are about as evenly matched as teams can be. It's a 50/50 coin flip (literally) and we happened to come up on the wrong side last time. I would like to think that makes odds in our favor this time, but it never seems to work that way. Homefield may give us a small edge. Injuries may cause that edge to disappear. Either way, I see this one going to the final minute/seconds like most of our games.

Even back in 2020-2021 during Brian Daboll, the offense was pretty streaky. Lots of games where they started slow, then seemingly woke up in the late 2nd or early 3rd Quarter. Fans remember Daboll more fondly, because his last two games were the Perfect Game against the Patriots and 13 Seconds against the Chiefs... possibly the best streak Josh Allen has ever put together in his career. The big difference I notice this year is the lack of deep ball plays. Allen seems to just miss on anything over 30 yards that requires some arc. On the flip-side, the offense does have more balance between run/pass than under Daboll or Ken Dorsey.